by Ella Edon
“I... I don’t understand.”
“You will soon enough.” Robert turned back to her, leaning against the window sill with his arms folded. His expression had Jane shivering. “They all helped me when I needed them. Mr. Elliott, Rosemary Wrey, Megan White. Every time I got a girl pregnant, they would run...interference for me. Elliott and Miss White would help the girl give birth and then Miss Wray would take the children away to be raised by those who had money. Those who could give them decent lives and not ask questions as to who the true parents were. That wasn’t difficult; all these families believed the children to be orphans. No family at all. They were all given a bit of money as well to keep them quiet, and it was all hushed up.”
Jane listened to this in growing horror. She had heard of horrific actions like this before, but this was coming from Robert. Her brother. The one person she could turn to, the one who allowed her to moan and cry because no one else would listen. Her protector. How could he be this depraved individual who could do something so awful?
“They looked out for me because they didn’t want my parents hurt.” Robert’s eyes never left her face. “And then we missed one girl. We didn’t get to her in time. But Judith did. She spirited her away before we could get to her. She was there when the girl had my child. And she wasn’t meant to be.”
What? Was Alexander wrong about Judith being her mother? Then Robert’s words sunk in. And it was like he had punched her in the gut again.
Robert grunted.
“From the look on your face, you’ve figured out what I’m talking about.” He pushed off the wall and stalked towards her. “Judith wasn’t your parent. I am.”
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Lady Crawley came into the room with a glass of water in her hands and approached Claire, who was sitting on the edge of Jane’s bed. Alexander watched her from his position by the door. Claire had come around a short while ago, but she was still very pale. Red marks were coming up on her cheek and a bruise was forming on her forehead. Lady Crawley held the glass out to the maid.
“Take this, dear.”
“Thank you, My Lady.” Claire managed a small smile as she took the glass. “I never thought I would be served by a countess.”
Lady Crawley grunted.
“Don’t get used to it.” She looked at Lee, who was sitting beside Claire. “She’s going to be fine. I’ll make sure she’s looked after, My Lord.”
“Thank you, Lady Crawley.”
Lee had looked like he was going to kill someone as he held Claire’s unconscious body earlier. Alexander had never seen him look so angry. It was clear to him what the Marquess’ feelings were towards the maid, and even now he was nearly brimming over with rage.
They had to find Robert. God only knew where he had gone. And he had Jane. Alexander didn’t believe that he would hurt his daughter, but if Robert felt like everything was against him, he would do something to harm Jane. Alexander didn’t think he would be able to live with himself if anything happened to Jane.
He had only just found her. He couldn’t lose her just as quickly.
Alexander caught Lee’s eye and jerked his head towards the door. Lee hesitated, and then he nodded. Squeezing Claire’s shoulder, he stood and headed towards the door.
“We need to start searching for Robert Malcolm,” Alexander whispered. “He can’t have gone far if he has someone with him.”
“They could have taken a horse.” Lee hissed. “They could be anywhere by now.”
“My gut says he’s close by. In a place that he feels is safe. He’ll lie low until he thinks he’ll be safe to leave.”
Lee scowled. “If you’re wrong, we’ll have wasted time searching for that ‘safe place’.”
Alexander sighed. His friend was in a cloud of rage, and he could understand. But that wasn’t going to get them anywhere.
“If Robert Malcolm is the Devil I think he is, he’s going to want to be somewhere where he has the upper hand. A familiar place.”
“Well, there shouldn’t be too many of those places.” Lee glanced back at Claire. “We’re going to need to organize a search party.”
“Not yet.” Alexander beckoned the Marquess to follow him. “We’re going to talk to Lord Crawley first.”
“You don’t think he was involved?”
“No, but he must know his son’s favorite places.” Alexander headed towards the stairs. “It’s the best place to start before we start going out into the estate. It’s going to start getting dark and we don’t want to end up going the wrong way.”
They trotted down to the foyer and through the house to Lord Crawley’s study. Alexander knocked twice before he went in, only to find that Lord Crawley wasn’t at his desk. He was standing at the window, staring out into the gardens out the back. The old gentleman didn’t turn around as the two younger gentlemen came in, simply leaned on his stick.
“Lord Crawley.” Alexander strode over, slowing to a stop as he neared the Earl. “We need to find Robert.”
“Is it true?” Lord Crawley’s voice was croaky. “That Robert killed everyone?”
Alexander glanced at Lee. Was the Earl crying? Lee moved to stand beside Alexander.
“I’m afraid so, Lord Crawley. He’s behind it all. This is all his mess.”
Crawley nodded slowly. Then he took a deep breath, letting it out with a shudder.
“He was always the caring one. The laidback son compared to Anthony. He wouldn’t hurt a fly.”
Alexander resisted the urge to snort. “He’s killed three people, caused the death of a fourth and God knows how many more deaths he’s been involved with. And now he’s got Jane.”
“Jane.” Lord Crawley turned. His face was pale, his eyes watery. Nothing like the formidable, scowling gentleman Alexander was used to. “Is it true that Robert is Jane’s father? That we were lied to all these years?”
Alexander swallowed. He nodded.
“Robert hid it from you. We don’t know what happened to Judith, but she had to have known about it.”
Lord Crawley was silent for a while. Then he looked at the floor. He seemed to be leaning more heavily on his cane.
“He was always a wild young gentleman, but happy. As soon as he became interested in the fairer sex, he changed and chased anyone in a skirt. His mother and I were in despair, and we had to arrange a marriage for him so we could get him to calm down.”
“The bride ran off with someone else, didn’t she?” Lee said.
“Yes. We tried arranging another marriage for him, but all in vain. Everyone had been affected at some point by Robert’s...antics. We couldn’t even get a decent marriage for Anthony, seeing as everyone believed he was the same as his younger brother. It was a miracle that your uncle wanted to marry Elizabeth, but she was the lucky one.” Lord Crawley swallowed. “We thought he had calmed down in recent years. He was starting to turn into the person we knew as a child. Back to how he was. Now I don’t really know my boy at all.”
His heart was cracking. Alexander felt a stab of sympathy for him, but now was not the time. Jane’s life was at stake.
“Do you have any idea where Robert will be now?”
“No, I don’t. Wait.” Lord Crawley lifted his head, a little hope coming into his eyes. “There’s a cottage on the estate that he used to go to as a child. I think he used it as a young gentleman to ‘entertain’ the ladies. There’s a good chance he would have gone there. It’s close to where the main road passes by the estate. He would just need to vault the wall and be on his way.”
Alexander and Lee exchanged looks. That was the best place to start. He could easily slip away.
“Where is this cottage?” Lee asked.
“Anthony will take you there. He knows the way.” Lord Crawley turned to Alexander and reached out, grabbing his arm in a vice-like grip. “Please, Harrison, just get my granddaughter back. If Robert’s killed his sister, he won’t be above killing his own daughter.”
“I know.” Alexander clasp
ed the old gentleman’s hand. “We’ll make sure that doesn’t happen.”
And that was a promise he was definitely keeping.
* * *
“You? You’re my father?” Jane asked.
“Yes.”
Jane thought she had misheard. He had to be jesting, but Robert wasn’t laughing. He just stared at her with a cool gaze. Oh, God. He wasn’t lying. Jane huddled on the pallet, shifting away until her back hit the wall. She wanted to get out of there. She didn’t want to be anywhere near him now.
“Who...who was my mother?”
“Her name was Matilda Berwick. She was a servant girl from Scotland and worked in the tavern in Crawley.” A wistful look passed over Robert’s face. “So young and innocent. So ripe for the taking. Then she told me about two months after I first took her to bed that she was going to have my child. I panicked, and I told her that I would arrange for her to give the child away. But she refused.”
His expression hardened. Robert turned away and began pacing. Jane whimpered, wrapping her arms around her knees. She really didn’t want to be here.
“She was going to raise the child as her own. She said that she didn’t care about her reputation. I was given the option of being in the baby’s life or staying out of it, and she didn’t care either way. I couldn’t risk her deciding that she was going to break her promise about telling people who the father was, especially if it got back to my parents.” Robert stopped and closed his eyes for a moment, taking a deep breath. “I went to see her, but she had disappeared. Nobody knew where she had gone. It took me a long time to find her. Months, in fact. Because of Judith.”
That was when Jane realized Judith’s role in it all. She was beginning to understand how Judith had got involved.
“She helped my mother to hide.”
Robert nodded. He scowled as he opened his eyes. “Your mother knew Judith. Her sister Marion was Judith’s personal maid. She confided in Marion, who told her mistress. Judith then helped her hide from me. She had seen how I was with other girls and she must have suspected what was going on. She took Matilda to a place where nobody would bother them, not even her own parents. Rosemary was the only one in the house who knew about it. Judith trusted her. And Mr. Elliott went to check on her, making sure that Matilda and the baby were healthy. But neither of them told me about it.”
“They wanted her to have the baby and not have her spirited away,” Jane murmured.
“They wouldn’t have had any choice. I would have found out. But none of them would tell me where she was. By the time I found out, Matilda had already given birth.” Robert looked away. “Judith was there. She brought you into the world. Matilda lost too much blood and she died as Judith cradled you.”
Jane felt sick. She wished she wasn’t here. This couldn’t be happening. Surely, this was not how she came into this world. But from Robert’s expression, that was exactly how it happened.
“Judith was cleaning you up by the time I arrived. Matilda was already dead.” Robert started pacing again. “Judith said she knew everything and that she was going to tell Mother and Father about what I did. It would have killed them.”
“Oh, God.” Jane swallowed. She wanted to cry, but the tears wouldn’t come. “You killed her.”
“Not intentionally,” Robert protested. “We fought, and Judith fell. She hit her head on the hearth and didn’t move. I panicked.” He ran his hands through her hair. “Miss White arrived just after that. I had summoned her as I knew I would need her help. It didn’t take much for her to figure out what had happened. I told her to help me bury the bodies and find a place for you. Initially, she refused, but then I told her I would let everyone know she was having an affair with Anthony. That was enough to bring her into line.”
“You what?”
Robert snickered. “Anthony thought he could keep it a secret from his family. But I knew exactly what he was up to. Having an affair with the pretty midwife. It did mean, sadly, that Miss White was off-limits for me. I knew she would let Anthony know, and he would raise hell over it. That meant both of us would be found out, and I wasn’t about to let my parents find out about my favorite past time.”
Jane looked towards the door. It wasn’t that far away. She could maybe reach it before Robert grabbed her. But her brother - father - was between her and the door. Even if Jane was fast enough, he would be able to catch up. She was trapped. And she had no idea where she was. Jane would be running blind.
Where was Alexander? Did he even know that she was gone?
“It was Miss White’s idea to give you to Mother and Father.” Robert went on. “Judith had said she was going to visit friends for a while, so she hadn’t been seen in months. She sent letters back on a regular basis saying she was in good health and enjoying herself. It didn’t take much to let Mother and Father believe that she had actually gone into hiding to hide her pregnancy and had died during the labor.”
“And then they passed me off as their own,” Jane murmured. “They never knew the truth?”
“No. My father spun it for everyone outside our family that Mother had given birth suddenly. Elizabeth and Anthony were told the version Miss White and I had agreed on. All the servants were sworn to secrecy and paid handsomely to keep quiet.”
That meant practically all the servants who had been working there since Jane was born knew what they thought was the truth about her parentage. And none of them had ever said a word to her. Jane didn’t know whether to scream at that or burst into tears. She swallowed.
“Did...did Claire know about me?”
“No, she didn’t. If she had done, she would have said something to you.” Robert smiled. “She’s fiercely loyal to you. And a fighter. She was like a wild animal when I was trying to get to you. If she wasn’t your maid, I might have made her my mistress.”
Jane swallowed down the bile building in her throat, which just made her stomach churn even more.
“If you’ve killed her, I swear…”
“She’s not dead. I wasn’t focused on her.”
“But you were focused on Rachel,” Jane shot back. “You were the one who attacked her, weren’t you?”
Robert sighed.
“She saw you leaving the house yesterday and she followed you. I caught her watching you and Harrison together.” His lip curled. “Much as I hated to see you be ruined by that cad, I wouldn’t have you watched by that chit. I hustled her away, and it was then she realized that I was the one who tried to sneak her away that night and not Harrison. She threatened to tell Father, calling me several names.” Robert shrugged. “She was getting hysterical and getting louder. I had to shut her up.”
“So, you beat her nearly to death.” Jane was shaking. She stared at him. “I don’t know you anymore, Robert.”
“You do know me, Jane.” Robert walked over and dropped to his knees. “I’ve always been there for you. I made sure I was there whenever you needed me.”
He reached for her, but Jane flinched and drew back. Robert’s hand hovered in the air for a moment, and then he lowered it.
“You lied to me,” Jane accused. “All my life, you were lying to me. You should have said something.”
“Would you have believed me?” Robert sighed. “Even if you knew the truth, it would be hushed up. It wouldn’t have gotten out for our family’s reputation to remain intact.”
“Mother and Father didn’t know the truth, though. You did. And Megan White.” Jane whimpered. “Is that why you killed her?”
Robert’s expression went blank. He sat back on his haunches and rubbed a hand over his face.
“She was going to tell Anthony the truth. That little chit was dying, and she thought she could atone for what she had done. Like it was going to make her feel better before she died. And she wanted to give me a chance to tell my parents first before she said anything. I couldn’t let her do that.”
“And you killed her.” Jane stared at him. How could her own flesh and blood be a complete strange
r to her? “What about Mr. Elliott? Rosemary?”
“They knew where you had come from. All three of them helped me get rid of my illegitimate children, made sure I covered my tracks. I couldn’t risk leaving them alive. They had to go as well.”
All just to cover up the fact he had conceived so many children. Jane knew her parents had been desperate for their sons to produce sons to inherit the Earldom after Anthony, and that didn’t happen. They wouldn’t have turned their grandchildren away. Jane knew they wouldn’t.
